Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Ridecamp Guest wrote:
> Please Reply to: s  manly smanly@xxxxxxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> ==========================================
>
> I appreciate all the good suggestions about dealing with loose dogs. 
> Are there good suggestions dealing with horses that charge up?

Two things.  Number One: horses communicate not with neighs, nickers or 
whinnys but with body language.  They read us like the proverbial book. 
Number Two: like small children, horses do not multitask well.  They 
REMEMBER well but they have trouble keeping more than one thing on their 
mind at a time.

As to the first, you are telling your horse with your micro movements, as 
you approach the narrow path, that there is danger ahead.  It puts him on 
guard.  Then a bunch of interested, mostly non-threatening, horses storm up 
to the fence.  "Whew!  That wasn't it," thinks your horse.  Then he sees 
the aggressive gelding with pinned ears charging and he figures he's in 
deep yogurt.  So the first thing you have to do is STOP TELLING YOUR HORSE 
there is danger ahead.  If YOUR fear is of getting hurt, get off and lead 
your horse through this narrow path.  Bring some carrot snacks and when you 
get to the aggressive gelding, stop and feed your horse the carrots.  Each 
day you should ride as FAR AS YOU are comfortable with, get off, stop by 
gelding, feed carrots.  Eventually you will get to the point that YOU know 
your horse's biggest "spook" will be his whipping his head around to get 
his carrots and YOU won't be afraid anymore and YOU won't be telling your 
horse there is danger ahead.  BTW, this will also take care of number two. 
 Your horse will be much too focused on getting his carrots (which are 
real) than getting killed by a threatening gelding (which never happens).

AFTER you can ride past these horses without YOUR being afraid, you can 
take your new horse and WATCH him to see his reaction.  He may surprise you 
by trying to make friends, maybe be INTERESTED in the bossy gelding.  Even 
if you feel yourself tense up, your new horse may ignore that in favor of 
paying attention to these new "toys".  But just in case, bring the little 
carrot snacks and be ready to implement Plan B.


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=